“Sardis Lake (Oklahoma)”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Sardis Lake is a reservoir in Pushmataha County and Latimer County in Oklahoma, USA, named for the now-defunct town of Sardis, Oklahoma.{{efn|The town was abandoned and submerged when the lake was created about 1980.}} The dam impounding the lake is located approximately {{convert|5|mi|km|1}} north of Clayton.

Sardis Lake is the focus of a lawsuit by the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations against the Governor of Oklahoma, ( Chickasaw v. Fallin) alleging that the state has ignored the tribal rights to the water in the lake. The outcome of this case has the potential to become a major legal decision regarding not only this issue, but the rights of Native American tribes in other areas.

Description

The lake covers {{convert|14360|acre|km2|0}} with {{convert|117|mi|km|0}} of shoreline. The lake is an impoundment of Jackfork Creek, a tributary of the Kiamichi River.^[1] Sardis Lake is surrounded by the Winding Stair Mountains on the north and east, the Kiamichi Mountains on the south and the Jackfork Mountains to the west, all of which are subranges of the Ouachita mountains. The lake is also {{convert|45|miles|km}} east of McAlester, Oklahoma. It drains an area of {{convert|275|mi2|km2}}.^[2]

The lake's normal pool elevation is {{convert|599|ft|m}} above sea level. Its storage capacity is {{convert|274,330|acre.ft|m3|lk=in}}. At flood stage its elevation is {{convert|607|ft|m}} above sea level and its capacity rises to {{convert|396900|acre.ft|lk=in}}.^[3]

History

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, led by Donald Mahaffey, constructed the dam and lake between 1977 and 1982 under a contract with the state of Oklahoma for the purpose of selling water to municipalities and industrial customers in Oklahoma. Oklahoma agreed to make 50 annual payments and to pay the costs of operating the dam and lake. However, the state was unable to sell the water it needed to recover its costs, so the state discontinued payments to the federal government in 1997. The federal government sued the state for breach of contract and recovery of funds. The case wound its way through the courts and eventually Oklahoma lost the case when the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.^[4] Thus, the Corps of Engineers legally owns Sardis Lake.^[2]

Proposed transfer of water

Shortly after Sardis Lake was filled, various plans were presented to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) for moving water from Sardis Lake to the vicinity of Oklahoma City. One of the first plans, presented in 1992, contemplated selling about 93 percent of the water to the North Texas Municipal Water District. Following heated protests, the state legislature rejected the ORWB plan.^[5]

A second attempt to sell the lake's water in Texas (this time to a different water district) occurred in the following year. This would have included having the legislature impose a seven-year moratorium on further out of state water sales. This plan also failed to pass in the legislature.^[5]

Litigation

Debt to Corps of Engineers

A news article in June, 2010, reported that the State of Oklahoma had paid $27 million to the Corps of Engineers to settle the debt.^[6]

Choctaw, Chickasaw v. Fallin

Oklahoma City is endeavoring to purchase the lion's share of water from Sardis Lake. A state contract executed in 2011, reserved 136,000 acre-feet of water for the Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust. (OUT){{efn|This amounts to 86.7 percent of the lake's capacity.}}

Several Native American tribes had filed a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in 2011, seeking an injunction that would prevent the state and Oklahoma City from transporting water from Sardis Lake to Oklahoma City.{{efn|The case is formally known as Chickasaw Nation vs. Fallin 2011 WL 3629363 (W.D. Okla Aug 18), 2011) (No. CIV-11-927-C). Informally, it has been called Chickasaw v. Fallin and the "Chickasaw Nation complaint."^[7] The defendant, Mary Fallin, is the Governor of Oklahoma }} In particular, the tribes state that they had been excluded from negotiations between the OWRB and the OUT. The Choctaws, for example, claim that the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek gave them authority over water resources in their territory. State officials claim that treaties signed by the tribes after the Civil War relinquished tribal rights, and therefore they can no longer make such claims.^[8]

An article published in the Tulsa Law Review describes the potential legal ramifications for this case:

Notes

References

1. ^U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sardis Lake." Updated August 2015. Accessed August 27, 2015.
2. ^¹"Sardis Lake, Oklahoma." lakelubbers.com. Accessed August 24, 2015.
3. ^"Sardis", Oklahoma Water Atlas, Oklahoma Water Resources Board, available via http://www.owrb.ok.gov/news/publications/wa/lakes/Sardis.php.
4. ^Findarticles.com: article from the Oklahoma City Journal-Record; "Sardis", Oklahoma Water Atlas.
5. ^¹[https://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/2015/04/02/the-view-from-sardis-lake-why-moving-water-to-where-its-needed-is-so-hard/ Layden, Logan. "The View From Sardis Lake: Why Moving Water to Where It’s Needed is So Hard." OK State Impact. April 2, 2015.] Accessed August 25, 2015.
6. ^Eustus, John. "State pays $27M lake debt." June 29, 2010. Accessed August 27, 2015.
7. ^¹Cox, Jr. Wyatt M., "A Reserved Right Does Not Make a Wrong." Tulsa Law Review, Volume 48, Issue 2. Article 20. (2012) Accessed August 25, 2015.
8. ^Murphy, Sean. "Chickasaw governor hopeful on water lawsuit talks." Native American Times. July 21, 2013. Accessed August 26, 2015.

External links